mandalas at carol's

 every once in awhile my friend carol puts together a field trip or a craft project (costume shop, wedding dress designer, artist trading cards) that i truly cherish. today she gathered us into her home for a day of mandala making. above, handsome haji welcomes us all as we enter his castle.

 an owl from the 2011 nychea craft fair!

 before we began, it was a time to catch up with our young people who have been at school or traveling. sofe has been in annapolis . .

 i'm not sure where ella has been studying!

 a snowman card from another nychea craft fair! it makes me happy to see our homeschooling crafts displayed. i'm unsure of what year this is from, but it's after 2011.

 carol talked for a little bit about mandalas and the supplies that were laid out, and then let us get to work.

 we all contributed with scrap yarns, papers, glue . . 

 scissors, protractors, compasses . . 

 pens . . 

 rulers and watercolor paint and brushes . . 

 plain, sturdy paper for the mandala frame . . 

 i usually feel very confused at these events, and always at a loss of how to begin. i also always suspect that i'm the only one that must feel that way, though, realistically, a few others must feel the same.

 my mandala. when carol came by she smiled and said she bought the flowered material i used purposely for the small flowers that could be cut out, "i thought they would be so perfect to snip out."

 chanda's . . 

 morgana's . .

 ella's . . 

 deborah's . . 

 katie's . .

 nancy's . . 

 marisa's . . 

 carol's . . 

 morgana's . . 

as you can see, everyone's mandala was brilliant and inspiring!

friday . .

 i have seventy-five owls. do i really need so many? i'm not sure, but i want to be prepared. we normally prep for forty participants . . maybe i tend to get a little carried away?

 i still had many things to do (such as cutting paper strips for the paper garlands), but i decided i just wanted to sew and watch a holiday movie first thing this morning. we ended up watching the polar express, which i had never seen and which i ended up really enjoying.

 these are our owl samples which will hang on a little christmas tree on the craft fair work table.

in this photo it's evening and chanda is still working away for me: cutting out tiny black eyes for the owls. afterwards, she got ready to go to the theatre to help out backstage. i cooked sauce and made meatballs for our guests tomorrow. korrina and brian and brian's parents will be attending the show with us and then will come back for dinner. however, it's supposed to snow! i hope they feel comfortable enough to drive (they come from rockland county, just a little ways north of us). the first snow is always a little stressful on the roads, i think. this weekend keeps having its little set backs!

crafting with marisa . . and the "modern" piece . .

making cinnamon ornaments .. 

and lots of gift tags! the rollers and ink need to be returned to my friend who lent them to us for the craft fair.

i made a bunch also . . i'm all set for next year's holiday season!

it was the nicest afternoon . .

meanwhile, in missoula chanda had her modern dance piece to perform. she recently just choreographed this especially for this competition:

finding quiet moments on st. nicholas day

our days are incredibly busy. we try and grab quiet moments when we can. we listened to emma for a little while in the morning before morgana and chanda ran off to babysitting and a ballet lesson, respectively.

 they then came home to a lunch of soup and roasted chestnuts (which were found in their shoes for st. nicholas day along with some chocolates). these chestnuts were the best we've ever had: so fresh and sweet.

 i ran errands (grocery and christmas shopping) and came home in time to listen to jean from waldorf inspired learning speak about simplifying the holiday time (!!).

dinner was wild salmon from trader joe's, who had a good price for their fish.

our nighttime reading for advent . .